Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Tyler Ramsey played a solo headlining show at Joe's Pub this past Monday, touring behind his recently released third solo disc The Valley Wind (Fat Possum). It was an intimate evening as Tyler's plaintive vocals established the atmosphere and he alternated between acoustic and electric guitar, occasionally utilizing some reverb and taped backing instrumentation. The show ran for just over 60 minutes, with one encore, and Tyler played material from all three of his solo discs and ended the evening with a cover of Jules Shear's "All Through the Night".

I found Tyler's stage banter rather charming as, I "see" him as someone who has played some big venues with Band of Horses, he seemed truly surprised and grateful for the number of people that showed up and the warm welcome he received.

It is worth mentioning that the setting at the newly renovated and reopened Joe's Pub added to the performance. While I always thought the club had great sound, the renovations opened up the sight lines and the lighting seems so much better. Given that all seats have a close proximity to the stage, Tyler's performance held the audience mesmerized (...and quiet, which was a nice change from some shows I've seen at other venues).

Tyler Ramsey's new disc, The Valley Wind, came out September 27th on Fat Possum. The disc is available for via Fat Possum’s webstore and iTunes and iTunes version comes with a bonus track of Ramsey covering Jules Shear’s “All Through The Night” (live version posted above).